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Bowling With Becky

Yesterday, I threw a little birthday get-together for Becky. I invited some of our friends over to go bowling at the Bowl-O-Mat in Beverly, and then back to our apartment to hang out and have some food.

This was the first time we had visited Beverly’s Bowl-O-Mat, and I have to say that it’s definitely a lot more fun than it looks from the outside (I failed to take any outside pics, but suffice to say, the place looks pretty run down). The Bowl-O-Mat does candlepin bowling, the traditional New England bowling style. It’s quite a different game from ten-pin bowling, for those of you who have never experienced it. Being from Ohio originally, I was pretty weirded out when I first played a game of candlepin several years ago. Bowling balls that you can hold in the palm of your hand, skinny little pins, three balls rolled per frame, dead pins not being cleared away between rolls… weird. It’s actually a more difficult game than ten-pin, because the ball is not able to knock over as many pins at once. It requires a bit more precision. Anyway, the overall feel of the game and the atmosphere it creates is more or less the same as ten-pin bowling, so it’s still lots of fun.

Yea, those East Coasters are whimps!! We did that toothpick “bowling” stuff with my cousins one year. It takes real men to handle a real bowling ball. Maybe that’s why they’re all blue staters out that way. They turn blue when they have to do anything that involves physical energy. Why out here in Ahia, we tip those cows, milk them pigs and chickens and then walk 10 miles (minimum) to work or school in our Carharts, excepting when we have to bring in the combines in to town for repairs that we can’t do in our garage , all before 5a.m. ! Hang in there Peter, don’t turn over to the Darkside. We’ll ship some real bowling pins and balls out to you!!
PS- Do you know there’s a Polka called “Grab Your Balls and Let’s Go Bowling Polka”?

that’s so much fun. i love that place. When we lived on Bridge Street in 1992, my daughter was about a month old, and my husband told me and my sister to go out and have some fun for an hour or so — before the baby woke up and needed to nurse. So bowl-o-rama was right down the street. we went and had a wicked good time. Doug called, I went home, we fed the baby, and then all four of us (jess included) went back. Jess slept the entire time. i had no idea bowling could soothe a baby.

Bec, you ROCK for wearing the sticker that I sent in your card! Woo hoo for you! How much do I wish I could have been there??!?!?!? Well, we’ll just have to do something fun the next time I do see you! SMACK!

I’m totally weirded out by “big ball” bowling. I am always afraid I’m going to get my fingers stuck in the holes and pull them out of their sockets when I throw the ball. A bunch of my friends and I used to bowl a lot and would always ask, “Big balls or little balls tonight?”

beforegirl: That’s why you select a ball with holes that are large enough so that your fingers don’t get stuck, and small enough so that it’s easy for you to hold. I’ve never heard of someone getting their fingers ripped off by a bowling ball.